As most of you know, Stephanie had a heart attack on December 11 that also caused her significant heart damage. She is currently considered to be in “heart failure” with her EF (ejection fraction) at 35%. (The normal range is 55-70%.) 

While in the hospital, we were taking our cues and future direction from Steph’s doctors on what we should do regarding our traveling schedule and her medical care.  Because her heart is not functioning completely and correctly, she has to wear a personal defibrillator (Life Vest) as a precaution from irregular heart rhythms that could cause sudden cardiac arrest. We are told that after three months of medication and monitoring, they should be able to see if it has helped strengthen her heart. She also is having to attend cardiac rehab for the next three months as another attempt to treat her weakened heart. In three months, the doctors will do another ultrasound to see if time, medication, and therapy (and lots of prayer!) have helped to get her heart function up and working properly. The doctors also have advised us to take any stressful scheduled obligations or pressures off of Steph’s plate during those three months to give her optimal time to recuperate. 
 
All of these factors have caused us to see God’s evident and obvious redirecting of our ministry for this coming spring. We’ve made the difficult decision to cancel our spring itinerary, partner on staff at Inter-City Baptist Church in Allen Park, MI (where we minister in the summers with the Spread the Word internship), put our kids in the school associated with the church, and help Stephanie regain strength. This has been a hard decision on one hand, but God has also made it easy in that—the doors have been clearly opened for the next steps we were to take. We simply walked through with confidence in God’s provision and direction. 
 
Here are a few things that you can rejoice in as well as pray for:
 
PRAISES: 

1. This all happened while we were at our home in Michigan for the holidays. God allowed this health issue to happen while we were close to our doctors and off the road.
2. God has provided food, money, help, clarity, encouragement, support, love, and prayers through the kindness of people all over the place. We are humbled by His love shown through the love of His people. Thank you for your part in loving our family/ministry. 
3. God has shown us tangible and specific ways that He is actively working in and growing our family. We are processing this in front of our children, and we believe and pray that He is using this for good in our lives as well as our teams. 
4. God is providing new evangelistic opportunities to share the hope of the Gospel with medical personnel, neighbors, cardiac rehab patients, and other relationships around us.
5. God has opened up a new ministry opportunity for us to partner with a local church that we have an already close relationship with. We are in awe of God's sovereign working and excited about how we can serve at Inter-City. 

 
PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Please pray that Steph’s heart function would improve. 
2. Please pray for our team members. They are very suddenly without a job. Please pray for the Lord to give clarity for the next step, provision in the waiting, and spiritual growth through this situation.
3. Please pray for grace as we transition into a new season of ministry for this spring and summer. Our kids are heading to a traditional school for the first time, and there are a lot of new things coming at them all at once.
4. We don’t know if this is a short season (the plan to be here in MI until August), or if God is wanting us to stop traveling for the foreseeable future. There are still a lot of question marks, and we are praying for wisdom as we try to decide what to do with our inventory, vehicles, equipment, and future schedule. God has led us very specifically so far, and we are confident that He will continue leading us in the next steps. 

 
We have resources available here on our website. We have physical recordings available for purchase along with sheet music! We will be trying to liquidate some of our book inventory to help us financially. We will also be releasing a new EP recording this month! Stay tuned!

Thank you for praying for our family and team. This has been a unique season full of new things. Hard doesn’t mean the same thing as bad, so we are resting in God’s perfect “Plan A” for our family and team. God is good and does good. We are choosing to trust Him. 

October 22-27
Mountain View Bible Church
Dublin, NH

After our time in Vermont, we came back to New Hampshire to be at Mountain View Baptist Church! The church is on a beautiful campus and is connected with Dublin Christian Academy, so we got to interact with the students daily! The whole team stayed on campus during the week as well. 

We had regular services on Sunday with both Sunday school and kid’s program. We had several friends visit on Sunday morning and evening from the Wilds of New England, and our team was able to go up to the camp for a visit Monday afternoon! It was such a sweet time getting to reconnect with some old camp friends. 

Monday evening we had a ladies chocolate night at Pastor Wilcox’s house, and we had a lovely time enjoying some good food and fellowship. The next night, the men enjoyed skeet shooting and a bacon night. Wednesday evening we had an outdoor dodgeball tournament with the youth group and school students! It was the perfect evening to be outside, and we had fun hosting the tournament. 

Thursday we had our Irish concert, and the next day, thanks to Pastor Wilcox, the team was able to take several kayaks out on a nearby lake and spend a few hours out on the water. It was such an enjoyable day off! We have really enjoyed our time in the New England states this fall.

​​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Mountain View Bible!

October 15-20
Trinity Baptist Church
Williston, VT

We came into Vermont at the perfect time of year! We were delighted to experience God’s creation up north with all the leaves changing colors. We did services from Sunday to Wednesday evening, as well as several interactions with the Trinity Baptist Christian school!

We were able to have pre-sessions with the teenagers before each service, and we really enjoyed getting to spend that extra time with them throughout the week. Aaron was able to preach chapel at the Christian school as well for all the different age groups, and on Wednesday, we played some Cola War games with the highschoolers and Aaron gave a short message to them in between games. 

We had a Family Fun Night on Tuesday, and the children in the school had a special challenge to invite people out to the service, and whichever class brought the most visitors got a pizza party for their entire class! Fourth grade won! It was fun to have so many children and visitors in the service. Kid’s program throughout the week was a blast as well. The kids stayed engaged throughout our whole program and brought lots of energy!

We finished our week of services with an Irish concert, and then we had two days to explore Vermont and spend time together! We all went to Burlington, a town right along Lake Champlain, and enjoyed some delicious crepes and a beautiful evening together.. On Friday, we ate our way through Vermont, including an apple cider farm for some cider and donuts, a Vermont cheese shop, a coffee roasting shop, and had a wonderful time appreciating the fall beauty of Vermont!

​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Trinity Baptist!

October 8-13
Merrimack Valley Baptist Church
Merrimack, NH

After our time in Pennsylvania, we packed up and headed to New Hampshire! We have been so excited to be in the New England states during the peak fall season. What a beautiful area to enjoy God’s colorful creation. We were at Merrimack Valley Baptist Church for the week. We served with the church on Sunday morning and evening with teen and adult Sunday school, children’s program, and regular services. Sunday evening, we were able to celebrate Jobe and Steph’s birthday! We enjoyed hanging out together and exchanging our gift of words to let Jobe and Steph know how much they mean to our team!

We had no services on Monday night, so we took advantage of the beautiful New England foliage and weather and were able to spend some time together. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we held regular services, and Tuesday morning, Our team had the opportunity to be a part of chapel for the Christian school on Tuesday! We played some music for the students, and then Aaron preached to the high schoolers. 

On Thursday, the high school girl’s volleyball team had a pink-out game, so we went all out with our pink outfits and pink hairspray and had a great time cheering them on. The girls won their match, and afterwards, we held a dodgeball tournament! We had a great group of kids and a very competitive tournament. We enjoyed getting to know the teenagers throughout the week.

Friday we had an Irish concert, and we had several visitors, including Adam’s mother and brother! We enjoyed getting to meet some of his family, as well as a few camp friends and visitors from members of the church that came out to see the concert. We’re always thankful for the opportunity to share the gospel with people who may not know Christ.

​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Merrimack Valley Baptist!

October 1-6
Slate Belt Church
Pen Argyl, PA

We had a great week of serving in Pennsylvania at Slate Belt Church in Pen Argyl. We started off our Sunday with a regular morning service as well as an evening service. Following the evening service, several families went out to McDonalds, so our team joined them and enjoyed the extra fellowship with this sweet church! We did a regular service on Monday, and on Tuesday we had a family fun night. We had a great time laughing with the church, and we were encouraged by how many church members came to our services each night, and how faithful they were in inviting others to our services and Irish concert on Wednesday. 

We had been working hard on introducing a new song, All My Boast is in Jesus, to our Irish concert repertoire, and this week we were able to premiere it in our concert! We really enjoy learning new music, and it was a joy putting this piece together with our team. 

We got to have teen pre-sessions with the church this week, and we loved every chance we got to connect with the teenagers! We were encouraged not only by how involved the teenagers were in coming to the services, but also how they pursued us as a team. They truly made us feel like a part of the church. 

Our kids program is always a highlight, and we were able to have one every time we met at the church. There were several families who came out to the services because their children wanted to come back to the kid’s program. Getting to work with the kids of the church is such a blessing to our team, and we love doing it. We’re thankful for our time at Slate Belt Church!

​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Slate Belt!

September 24-29
Linwood Community Church
Linwood, NJ

We were so excited to be at Linwood for the week! The church was just a few minutes away from the beach, so we were able to visit the ocean and the boardwalk a few times during the week. We had a dodgeball tournament on Sunday night, and we had a great turnout from the community! Most of the teenagers that attended were not from the church, so it was an awesome way to connect them with the youth group. The kids came energized and some of them even made team t-shirts! We had a lot of fun that night with the church. On Monday we had a regular service, and on Tuesday we had a ladies’ chocolate cafe night! The ladies did a wonderful job of creating a cozy atmosphere and provided many yummy options of desserts, coffee, and even had chocolate fondue. Danielle, Ella, Rachel, and Steph provided music, a game, and Stephanie taught an encouraging message from Psalm 31. 

Wednesday we had a family fun night! We had a lot of children attend because of the church’s Wednesday night children’s ministry, so we pivoted the direction of the game and music time and had a fun time with the kids. Thursday, we had our Irish concert to finish out our week with the church. After we packed up and were getting ready to head back to our host homes, one of our previous team members, Natalie, surprised the whole team by stopping in for the weekend! We were all very surprised, and we enjoyed visiting with her. Friday, the team took a bike ride on the boardwalk, and in the evening, we all spent time together eating pizza, popcorn, and watching a movie. Our week in New Jersey was a fun time, and we’re looking forward to being back!

​​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Linwood!

September 17-22​
Victory Baptist Church
Reading, PA

Our week in Reading was very encouraging. We started off our services with an Irish concert 
Sunday evening. Josh, Danielle, and Rachel’s families were able to come out for our concert that night! It’s so special when members of our team are able to attend one of our services. We also had a special visit from the family of previous team member, Phil Arcuri (2020-2022) and one of Ella’s camp counselors! We had a great concert and were encouraged by how many different churches attended the concert! We enjoyed a fellowship afterwards, and some of the team got to spend time afterwards with their family and friends. 

We had a full week of events following Sunday! After our regular service on Monday, we had a men’s night on Tuesday, and a ladies night on Wednesday. Having men’s and ladies nights are special times where we get to connect with the church people on a deeper level, so we had a great time. On Thursday, we had an outdoor dodgeball tournament that included several of the different churches and schools in the area. After Aaron shared the gospel with the teenagers, we had three visitors raise their hands indicating their need to be saved. 

Everyone at Victory Baptist was incredibly kind to us. Our whole team especially enjoyed spending time with Pastor and Mrs. Conover. Friday night, the team members went over to their home for a campfire, cornhole, and board games. We were really blessed by our time at Victory Baptist!

​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Victory!

September 10-15​
Calvary Independent Baptist Church
Huntingdon, PA

We had a very eventful start to our travel day to Pennsylvania! After a week of training at the Coffey house, we left Michigan to head to Calvary Independent Baptist Church, and about 2 hours into the trip, the Coffey’s trailer had an issue with one of their trailer axles. By God’s grace and through a series of crazy events, Aaron was able to locate the part to fix the trailer, and he arrived in Huntingdon late on Saturday night. We are so thankful that the church offered a place for Steph and the kids to stay in while Aaron was in Ohio trying to get their trailer fixed!

On Saturday, the team plus Ella and Asher, got to go to a college football game; Penn State vs Delaware! They had a great time cheering for Penn State and exploring State College. Later that evening, we had dinner at the pastor’s house and had a great time fellowshipping and watching Alabama football. 

Sunday we had regular services, and in the evening, we got together at the cabin where the Coffey had stayed to play some games and hang out with each other. It was fun to pend time together after a crazy weekend! During the week, Aaron was able to preach in chapels during the week at Calvary Christian Academy. On Tuesday, we had a dodgeball tournament with the teenagers from the church, school, and the community, and we had a blast! They were such a fun group of kids to work with, and we had a great turnout. On Wednesday, we got to have a Family Fun Night, and despite some technical difficulties, we still had a great time laughing together and an encouraging message about church unity from Philippians 2.

On Thursday we finished our week of meetings with our first Irish Concert of our new traveling year. By God’s grace, the concert went smoothly and there was an encouraging response after the Gospel presentation. The people from Calvary were so kind to us, and we truly enjoyed our time serving there.

Friday, Josh and Asher went disc golfing with a family from the church, and then the team cheered on the CCA girls’ soccer team while Steph and Aaron enjoyed a date night to celebrate Steph’s birthday in State College! It was an enjoyable week at the church, and we’re looking forward to our next week of ministry with them!

​​Click "Read More" to see more pictures from our week at Calvary!